Dubai International reports passenger record

Dubai International started the second half of the year on a positive note as Dubai Airports reported monthly passenger numbers that eclipsed the elusive four-million mark for the first time.

Dubai International handled a total of 4,307,926 passengers in July compared to 3,768,965 in July 2009, a year on year increase of 14.3 per cent. The year to date traffic reached 26,862,371, up 16 per cent compared to 23,166,054 in the corresponding period in 2009. The closest the airport has previously come to the four million mark was in March 2010 when the monthly traffic reached 3,968,672.

The largest regional traffic growth in July was recorded in Eastern Europe (+219 per cent), Asia (+34 per cent) and Russia & CIS (+29 per cent). The highest passenger volumes were recorded in the Western European sector, the AGCC and the Indian Subcontinent driven by capacity increases and new routes launched by Emirates to Tokyo, Amsterdam, Prague and Madrid.

Continuing its upward trend, Dubai International reported its tenth consecutive month of double-digit cargo traffic growth as the airport handled 197,845 tonnes of freight compared to 160,289 tonnes during the same period in 2009, an increase of 23.5 per cent. Year to date Dubai International has handled a total of 1,299,701 tonnes of cargo, up 25.5 per cent compared to 1,035,118 tonnes during the same period last year.

“This is an important milestone that reflects the consistent growth we have seen over the past years. Compared to July 2009 Dubai International handled over half a million more passengers and we surpassed the highest ever monthly traffic total by over 300,000 passengers,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO, Dubai Airports.

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“As we are experiencing such high levels of growth consistently, we will be extending our ‘Summer Mission’ programme, which we have been operating for three years now, and deploying additional service personnel across the airport to make sure that our service remains at a world class level,” said Griffiths. “This is particularly important during the holy month of Ramadan, which began on August 11 and will culminate in the peak of the year, which is the festival of Eid-Al-Fitr in September.”